The front seats of automobiles are mounted on the floor board upon which passengers normally rest their feet. The floor board adjacent an automobile front seat is normally flat and connects to an angled toe board adjacent the fire wall. The front seat passengers normally rest both feet on the toe board and the driver normally rests his left, or non-operating foot there.
To accommodate the driver's left foot, most vehicles include a foot pad mounted on the carpet surface to inhibit carpet wear. Some of these have, a complementary shoe sole shape, as depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 3,047,088 to Murrell. In some vehicles, a "dead" pedal is mounted for engagement by the driver's left foot.
Since vehicle drivers come in all sizes, including short and long-legged versions, attempts have been made to accommodate the extremes. Many vehicles have adjustable steering columns to enable short-legged drivers to move the seat forward to reach the control pedals.
Other adjustments include a movable toe board and pedals, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,288,239 to Ristau, which uses an expensive and complex mechanism which is hydraulically operated. To help accommodate passengers, as well as drivers, adjustable foot rests have been proposed which mechanically interlock a movable foot rest for movement with a seat. An example of this is related in U.S. Pat. No. 3,059,960 to Komorowski. None of the arrangements proposed heretofore provide an inexpensive, unobtrusive, variably adjustable foot rest that harmonizes with vehicle interior styling.